Teachers in the Tucson Early Childhood Education Model (TEEM) are being encouraged to employ "the professional response" in classroom interactions to stimulate pupil thinking. The teacher uses the professional response when she responds to a child in such a way as to invite him to recall previous experiences and to predict in terms of these, to categorize, to think about his response, to become descriptive and specific, and to strengthen the meaning that words and phrases have for him. Teachers and aides are trained to utilize (1) reinforcement, (2) individualization, (3) modeling, and (4) orchestration (identifying skills to evolve out of activity) in harmony with the philosophy and organization of TEEM. Basic to development of the professional response is a teacher's ability to pick up cues from the total classroom environment. The teacher must listen to pupils so that she will keep the environment in tune with their interests and development. Two TEEM checklists for teacher self-evaluation are appended to this theoretical model of the teacher's role in teacher-pupil interactions. Both checklists may help teachers to develop their own style of professional response. (WY)